Hall vote for Rivera is unanimous
NEW YORK – Mariano Rivera has become baseball’s first unanimous Hall of Fame selection, elected along with Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina.
Rivera received all 425 votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Tuesday. The quartet will be enshrined in Cooperstown along with Today’s Game Era Committee selections Harold Baines and Lee Smith on July 21.
Rivera is baseball’s career saves leader with 652. Armed with his signature cut fastball, he won five World Series over 19 seasons with the New York Yankees.
Ken Griffey Jr. held the mark for top voting percentage at 99.32 two years ago.
Halladay, an ace with the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, got 85.4 percent of the vote. Halladay died in November 2017 at age 40 when an airplane he was flying crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Martinez was a .312 hitter over 18 seasons with Seattle. He got 85.4 percent in his 10th and final try on the writers’ ballot.
Mussina was a steady left-hander for the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles who went 270-153 with 2,813 strikeouts over 18 seasons. He received 76.7 percent of the vote.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens made gains but again fell short in their seventh times on the ballot. Bonds got 59.1 percent and Clemens 59.5.
Rivera grew up in Panama the son of a fisherman. He signed with New York in 1990, debuted in the majors as a 25-year-old in 1995 and a year later emerged as one of the game’s best relievers. Rivera helped the Yankees win four World Series from 1996-2000 and another in 2009.
The Yankees didn’t even wait until his final game to retire his No. 42 – he was the last player in the major leagues to wear that number, grandfathered to him when No. 42 was retired in honor of Jackie Robinson in 1997.